Obadiah

Were going to fly over an entire book of the Bible tonight turn with me tonight in your Bibles to Obadiah, its going to be very easy to zing past it because it is only a chapter long. Obadiah is an interesting book because it basically is like playing a one stringed guitar.

I would imagine, but theres only one single message that Obadiah is attempting to convey here. But I trust the Lord is going to bring out multiple things from it for our benefit. Obadiah was a prophet we really dont know anything about this man other than he was a prophet. We dont really have any backround on him. But Obadiah was raised up to give one message one time.

His message was about the Edomites of all people, and these Edomites were neighbors to the Jews but they were more than just neighbors they were relatives, because the Edomites were descendants of Esau.

Abraham has a son named Isaac and Isaac has twin sons named Jacob and Esau. Jacob of course goes on to be the father of the Jews and from Esau we get the Edomites or the descendants of Esau, and Jacob and Esau never got along to good youll remember.

Especially since Jacob stole Esaus birthright and Esau held a grudge didn’t ever kill his brother like he wanted to he really wanted him dead, but he cooled off after many years. They never got aloing and their descendants never got along either.

The Edomites were the kind of people who were just kind of like that ongoing pain in the neck for the Jews, they not only took their turn going to war against the Jews but they also cheered on other enemies when they came and attacked God’s people in the land and they cheered when the Israelites fell, and when some of the Israelites were running for their lives they woud cut em off as they were about to enter into their land. They did alot of nasty things to them.

So essentially the book of obadiah becomes kind of a reminder to you and to me about how our responses to our enemies people we don’t like is something that God takes note of.

Sometimes we look at our enemies like they are our enemies and so therefore they must be God’s enemies as well. So I can pretty much think about them and feel about them any way I want but the word of God says something different.

Proverbs

Proverbs 24:17–18 HCSB

Don’t gloat when your enemy falls, and don’t let your heart rejoice when he stumbles, or the Lord will see, be displeased, and turn His wrath away from him.

So in other words if your enemy has wronged you, and it is a situation where he is in the wrong or she and you are in the right and then something happens to this person who has made themself an enemiy to you, and you find out something negative happened and you chickle under your breath or maybe you even laugh out loud and this proverb reminds us that the Lord takes note of that sort of thing.

The Lord takes note of how you and I repsond regarding our enemies, and so this scipture that you see here represent a kind of principle that is going to be addressed tonight from the book of obadiah.

It reveals to us something about the heart of God and it is something that we need to pay attention to. You know when God lays out something like this, this teaches us about Him, this teaches us about His character. God’s character is such that He doesn’t want you laughing or even smiling or enjoying it when your enemy. when someone who HAS HURT YOU is themself hurt by lifes circumstances.

He does not want you rejoicing over the downfall of your enemy. He doesn’t want it, He doesn’t wanna see it happen. It says that if you do, then God may see and be displeased and actually turn HIs wrath away from your enemy and the implication there is that that wrath begins to be directed at you, because you have done something that contradicted the heart of the Lord. You know the reason I share this principle with you is because the more that we understand the heart of the Lord the more we can put ourselves in a position where were not going to contradict it.

When you know the heart of the Lord you can begin to answer your own questions regarding what His will is. You know many times the questions that people have they will come to me or Cory and they’ll ask, and we love answering, but there are some answers you can’t neccesarily find by findgin a scripture you know. you cant always find a passage that says go here and do that, its not always that specific but what you can be guided by is the heart of the Lord knowing the heart of the Lord.

That’s why it is so important to go through the scriptures like this and learn about God’s heart. What things are important to God what makes His heart beat or break? It guides us in so many ways of life.

History

It begins with some statements that are made to the man Abraham who is of course the father of the nation of Israel.

Genesis 12:1–3 HCSB

The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Genesis 12:1-

Now this is interesting because there is a principle that God laid down here for the man Abraham and all the descendants who were to come after Him. God says very clear to Abraham listen this is the way its gonna work, whoever blesses you I am going to bless, simple, but whoever curses you I am going to curse. That is why this is vitally important in the days of Abraham, in the days of Isaac, In the days of Jacob and then the 12 tribes of israel which came from Jacob and on and on, and its still important today.,

It’s ones of the reason why we who believe the Bible today think it is important for the US to have a good relationship with Israel. This is really the primary reason! It’s not just that we want to be blessed it’s just that we know that there is this Biblical principle that has been laid down in the word of God for all time. God says it clearly I will bless those who bless you, i think one of the reasons the US has enjoyes great blessing here is because Historically we have been an ally and friend to Israel.

Now things cooled under past administrations which is sad but they are coming back up again now! There are a number of Christians around the world who are praying for Israel. Israel is stiil important to the Lord,they are not off God’s radar He is still going to work in it.

I want you to understand This principle as we get ready to go into Obadiah, because the reason that the Edomites are going to be spoken to in this short prophetic book is because they violated this principle, and they cursed the Israelites.

Now let’s look at one particular event in the history of Israel do you remember when Moses was bringing the nation of Israle toward the promised land, they ahd been in the wilderness wandering and now they are on their way to where they will enter the land. But they came to the border of Edom in their travels and I want you to look with me here

Numbers 20:14

Numbers 20:14–21 HCSB

Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, “This is what your brother Israel says, ‘You know all the hardships that have overtaken us. Our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt many years, but the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly. When we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice, sent an angel, and brought us out of Egypt. Now look, we are in Kadesh, a city on the border of your territory. Please let us travel through your land. We won’t travel through any field or vineyard, or drink any well water. We will travel the King’s Highway; we won’t turn to the right or the left until we have traveled through your territory.’ ” But Edom answered him, “You must not travel through our land, or we will come out and confront you with the sword.” “We will go on the main road,” the Israelites replied to them, “and if we or our herds drink your water, we will pay its price. There will be no problem; only let us travel through on foot.” Yet Edom insisted, “You must not travel through.” And they came out to confront them with a large force of heavily-armed people. Edom refused to allow Israel to travel through their territory, and Israel turned away from them.

Now this is not the only country that is going to come out and flex a little muscle in a show of force against Israel. There will be other nations who will do that as well. But if you read this story you will see that the Israelites just turned away. They didn’t respond, and there was a good reason for that. Now turn with me to one more book before we unpack Obadiah.

Turn with me to deuteronomy 2 and deuteronomy is really just a big long sermon of Moses recounting the whole thing.

Deuteronomy 2:1–8 HCSB

“Then we turned back and headed for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea, as the Lord had told me, and we traveled around the hill country of Seir for many days. The Lord then said to me, ‘You’ve been traveling around this hill country long enough; turn north. Command the people: You are about to travel through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so you must be very careful. Don’t fight with them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even an inch of it, because I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his possession. You may purchase food from them with silver, so that you may eat, and buy water from them to drink. For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this immense wilderness. The Lord your God has been with you this past 40 years, and you have lacked nothing.’ “So we bypassed our brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We turned away from the Arabah road and from Elath and Ezion-geber. We traveled along the road to the Wilderness of Moab.

8

So Moses is basically telling how this thing went down, but notice the reason they didn’t attack the Edomites, was god told em not to. He said listen when you come to the land of Edom you pay them for anything you use of course they never got a chance to do any of that because the Edomites didn’t let em pass through their land, they said YOU CAN’tPASS THROUGH OUR LAND

We dont want you setting a toe on your land, you stay out of our land. They said hey listen we just want to pass through we’ll pay you, NO, but God said I dont care do not provoke them to war. So when the Edomites came out fully armed ready to fight. The Israelites said you know what thats ok, its ok we will back off, were going to leave out of obedience to God. Now this gives you a little backround on the history Israel had with the Edomites.

Obadiah one begins with the vision of Obadiah now I dont know what you get when you think of God speaking to Obadiah and the Ot prophets, I dont know if you think about them hearing a voice and they basically dictate what to write. But Obadiah is using a word that is used by some of the OT porphets and what it means is vision. What He means is that he recieved literally an image or a picture. Thats how God coomunicated with Him he saw the communication of the Lord. Some people do get that sort of a thing, and the bible tells us that in the last days there will be visions and there will be dreams that will be dreamed. A vision is a dream or a story in pictures that the Lord gives that you are able to communicate with words.

SoObadiah was given a vision from the Lord

Obadiah 1–2 HCSB

The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord God has said about Edom: We have heard a message from the Lord; a messenger has been sent among the nations: “Rise up, and let us go to war against her.” Look, I will make you insignificant among the nations; you will be deeply despised.

Obadiah 1:1-

So what is God telling Edom here. He is saying that the word is coming from God to rallt the nations and the nations are going to come and do to Edom what they did to the Jews in Judea. Who were taken away into slavery. Basically what God is saying is this you sat and cheered and clapped you hands when my people were carted off I just want you to know its now your turn.

You should always remember when you want others to fail, and they do and you rejoice failure is coming your way as well in the same way.

God tells Edom why

Obadiah 1:3

Obadiah 3 ESV

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?”

You see Edom was a people who were very proud of the way they lived. They were very proud of their wealth which they acquired by looting they would have raiding parties, who would go in and take things. In fact they did this to the Jews when the Jews were attacked by a nation or weakened the Edomites would rush in and loot. They also believed that because their fortresses were in the hill country of Seir that they were untouchable.

They lived in the hill country so they had the vantage points on their enemies and when you are at war living in the caves was good ground to have.

But they thought they were unbeatable because of this situation and look what God says again

THE PRIDE OF YOUR HEART HAS DECIEVED YOU

You know what were all proud we all struggle in some way with pride. You know whats interesting we mistake pride for conciet we think pride and conceit are the same thing and so if someone goes around boasting about themselves like “yeah ...” We think about that person oh he is so prideful but the fact is the person who puts themself down is just as prideful

the person who always says oh I cant do that im not very good at that I am so sorry I am always making mistakes that is a prideful person. Because the definition of prideful means centered around oneself. You see I can be centered on me in a positive way, or I can be centered on me in a negative way, but Im still centered on me, its still all about me.

So the thing that God shares with us about pride is that pride is deceptive. It decievees you into thinking things that arent true, that have no basis in fact but you believe them anyways. You might be one fo those woe is me people but pride ahs made you think about things that arent true about yourself. ,

We can sniff out pridebecause we struggle with it too.

Pride is deceptive.

Obadiah 4 HCSB

Though you seem to soar like an eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down. This is the Lord’s declaration.

Obadiah 1:4

This is echoing yet another spiritual principle. to the one who exalts himself god’s gonna bring em down

But he who humbles himself whats the Lord gonna do?

LIFT HIM UP

do you know that humility repentance and things that go along with it are key to hearing Gods voice. So frequently people will say to me man you know I am just not hearing God’s voice, well heres the question we need to ask ourselves HAVE YOU REPENTED LATELY?

I mean think about it repentance makes us open to hear what God has to say

BORKENNESS OPENS US TO HEAR GODS VOICE

Luke 7:29–30 HCSB

(And when all the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they acknowledged God’s way of righteousness, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. But since the Pharisees and experts in the law had not been baptized by him, they rejected the plan of God for themselves. )

Luke 7:29-

Again what was JTB’s baptism all about repentance

That was his one message repent for the kingdom of God is near. Repent, repent, repent thats all he said!

But iwas so vital, because we see here in luke that those who got ba[tzed by JOhn were open to hear Chirsts words and thery accepted them joyfully but those who rejected JTB’s message of repentance were those who did not understand Jesus or His words/

Sometimes we wonder why someone wont respond to the messge of god why they wont hear the word of Godit bcause they dont have a revelation of their own si, and they are unrepentant. We must pray that God gives us all hearts to recieve His words and understand when we need to repent!

pride is the barrier between us and God

Obadiah 5–7 ESV

If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night— how you have been destroyed!— would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? How Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out! All your allies have driven you to your border; those at peace with you have deceived you; they have prevailed against you; those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you— you have no understanding.

Obadiah 1:5

God says to them there will be nothing left for you when I am finished with you

Obadiah 1:8

Obadiah 8–9 ESV

Will I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of Mount Esau? And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.

Then He is going to explain why

Obadiah 1:10-

Obadiah 10–14 HCSB

You will be covered with shame and destroyed forever because of violence done to your brother Jacob. On the day you stood aloof, on the day strangers captured his wealth, while foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them. Do not gloat over your brother in the day of his calamity; do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction; do not boastfully mock in the day of distress. Do not enter the gate of My people in the day of their disaster. Yes, you—do not gloat over their misery in the day of their disaster and do not appropriate their possessions in the day of their disaster. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off their fugitives, and do not hand over their survivors in the day of distress.

But the Edomites di all of those things, they did all of them

Can you imagine people running for their lives and they have escaped the enemyand they have nothing only to get to the border of Edom and have them catch them and take them back.

They hated them so much or they killed them themselves

God saw and he took note

Obadiah 15–18 HCSB

For the Day of the Lord is near, against all the nations. As you have done, so it will be done to you; what you deserve will return on your own head. As you have drunk on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp down and be as though they had never been. But there will be a deliverance on Mount Zion, and it will be holy; the house of Jacob will dispossess those who dispossessed them. Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire, and the house of Joseph, a burning flame, but the house of Esau will be stubble; Jacob will set them on fire and consume Edom. Therefore no survivor will remain of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.

Obadiah 1:15-

To this day you will not find an Edomite

God tells them in no uncertain terms, you laughed when my people fell into disaster and you cheered when they were in shame. He says I just want you to know they will last and you wont. You will be destroyed and they will continue on, I’ll see to it.

He says you think your untouchable but your not.

Obadiah 1:19-

Obadiah 19–21 HCSB

People from the Negev will possess the hill country of Esau; those from the Judean foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will possess the territories of Ephraim and Samaria, while Benjamin will possess Gilead. The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah and who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath as well as the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev. Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the hill country of Esau, but the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

So God ends this section by saying you pridefilled people, you think no one can bring you down but I can, you wanted to rule over your enemy which were mine but instead they will rule over you.

Do you remember the book of Esther?

There was a mad man hamon who grew to have a hatred toward the Jew Mordecai and Mordecai refused to bow down to Hamon it made Homan so mad he wanted to kill Mordecai it grew so severe that eventually he wanted to kill all the Jews, so he had the king sign an edict that said when they went towar that everyone was supposed to slaughter the Jews.

Even Hamon built this huge gallow on his own property in order to watch Mordecai hang on that gallows, he was going to sit back and have a bbq with his friends and watch this man die.

Who ended up swinging from those gallows?

HAMON

There is another principle here the hole you dig for your enemy your going to fall into yourself!

So dont dig holes for your enemies, thats the lesson of Obadiah thats the message to the people of Edom.

DONT DO THAT BECAUSE GODS WATCHING HOW YOU TREAT YOUR ENEMIES

So how are we to treat our enemies?

Matthew

Matthew 5:44 HCSB

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Do you have someone who you consider an enemy?

Choose today how you will respond, like Edom? Or like a child of God?

Let’s pray